Sweet freedom
Guess who's out of self-isolation?! Hurrah! We went for a bike ride on our first day of freedom and it was lovely. I love this time of year when everything's in full growing mode. The hedgerows are absolutely packed with flowers and the wild garlic smells amazing. Friends of mine are using it to make infused oil and putting it into bread, and all sorts!
I've also been for a run, after a bit of procrastination. I knew this would happen: I spent two weeks moaning because I couldn't go out and now that I can, I don't want to. I'm like Andy off Little Britain, complete with forehead! I gave myself a good talking to the other morning and reminded myself that I'm in a unique position at the moment to be able to really focus on improving my fitness and my eating habits. It's easy to blame a lack of time when we have to travel 45 minutes to and from work each day, so I've got no excuse now that I've been gifted that extra time. So I went for my run, and got soaked (poor jacket strategy), but I realised that I've quite missed running in the rain.
Work this week involved recording narration for a training PowerPoint, amongst other things. This should have been relatively easy, but every time I pressed "record" a bus or lorry would go past outside, or one of the baby elephants upstairs would start moving around, or all the dogs in the surrounding back gardens would immediately start barking at the same time! I bet Matt Baker doesn't have these issues when he records Countryfile at home!
Speaking of work, is anyone else finding that they're spending half the day on video calls? I don't know how I used to get my work done in the office as all I seem to do at the moment is talk to other people!
Last week I mentioned that I've done some planting over the last few weeks. A couple of years ago we dug up a strip of the back lawn so that we could plant some veggies as we were missing our allotment. It's now home to a gooseberry bush, rhubarb and a some rosemary, and I plant onions every year. This year I'm trying a couple of cabbages and cauliflower, too. I've also got carrots, radish, lettuce and broccoli in pots and they're all starting to sprout. I still really miss our allotment though, mostly because it was right by the pub so we'd often call in on the way back from an afternoon of digging.
I've also had the opportunity to do more "proper" cooking since working from home. Normally our meals consist of anything that can be cooked in about 30 minutes, or something quick after running. No one wants to be in the kitchen all night and not eating until 9pm, so I used to save my more time-intensive meals for weekends. I do love cooking though, so some of the highlights so far have included a one-pan pizza courtesy of Jamie Oliver, homemade naan bread courtesy of my good friend, Sarah, homemade spring rolls, pulled pork, and tonight I made my own garlic bread (similar to the naan bread). The boys enjoy cooking too and have made pasta from scratch, with meatballs, and some delicious chicken fajitas with loaded nachos. I'm going to come out of lockdown about three stone heavier at this rate!
I've read on various websites that lots of us are having trouble sleeping during this time, or are having weird dreams (since lockdown started I've had a recurring dream that someone's watching us), and being a sleepwalker I often have trouble getting back to sleep after I wake up. So, I downloaded an app called Sleep Sounds, which plays all sorts of sounds to help you sleep. I tried it in the week by playing the sound of rain on a tent (it reminds me of sleeping in the van) and it definitely worked. There are loads of sounds to choose from, including the sea, forest, rain and a campfire. So, if you're in the wide-awake club these days it's definitely worth a try.
Right, that's it for this week. Sleep well, stay safe, wash your hands!
xxx
I've also been for a run, after a bit of procrastination. I knew this would happen: I spent two weeks moaning because I couldn't go out and now that I can, I don't want to. I'm like Andy off Little Britain, complete with forehead! I gave myself a good talking to the other morning and reminded myself that I'm in a unique position at the moment to be able to really focus on improving my fitness and my eating habits. It's easy to blame a lack of time when we have to travel 45 minutes to and from work each day, so I've got no excuse now that I've been gifted that extra time. So I went for my run, and got soaked (poor jacket strategy), but I realised that I've quite missed running in the rain.
Work this week involved recording narration for a training PowerPoint, amongst other things. This should have been relatively easy, but every time I pressed "record" a bus or lorry would go past outside, or one of the baby elephants upstairs would start moving around, or all the dogs in the surrounding back gardens would immediately start barking at the same time! I bet Matt Baker doesn't have these issues when he records Countryfile at home!
Speaking of work, is anyone else finding that they're spending half the day on video calls? I don't know how I used to get my work done in the office as all I seem to do at the moment is talk to other people!
Last week I mentioned that I've done some planting over the last few weeks. A couple of years ago we dug up a strip of the back lawn so that we could plant some veggies as we were missing our allotment. It's now home to a gooseberry bush, rhubarb and a some rosemary, and I plant onions every year. This year I'm trying a couple of cabbages and cauliflower, too. I've also got carrots, radish, lettuce and broccoli in pots and they're all starting to sprout. I still really miss our allotment though, mostly because it was right by the pub so we'd often call in on the way back from an afternoon of digging.
I've also had the opportunity to do more "proper" cooking since working from home. Normally our meals consist of anything that can be cooked in about 30 minutes, or something quick after running. No one wants to be in the kitchen all night and not eating until 9pm, so I used to save my more time-intensive meals for weekends. I do love cooking though, so some of the highlights so far have included a one-pan pizza courtesy of Jamie Oliver, homemade naan bread courtesy of my good friend, Sarah, homemade spring rolls, pulled pork, and tonight I made my own garlic bread (similar to the naan bread). The boys enjoy cooking too and have made pasta from scratch, with meatballs, and some delicious chicken fajitas with loaded nachos. I'm going to come out of lockdown about three stone heavier at this rate!
I've read on various websites that lots of us are having trouble sleeping during this time, or are having weird dreams (since lockdown started I've had a recurring dream that someone's watching us), and being a sleepwalker I often have trouble getting back to sleep after I wake up. So, I downloaded an app called Sleep Sounds, which plays all sorts of sounds to help you sleep. I tried it in the week by playing the sound of rain on a tent (it reminds me of sleeping in the van) and it definitely worked. There are loads of sounds to choose from, including the sea, forest, rain and a campfire. So, if you're in the wide-awake club these days it's definitely worth a try.
Right, that's it for this week. Sleep well, stay safe, wash your hands!
xxx
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